Summary of Course Content
I. Overview of computer networks
II. Application Layer
A. Client-server model
B. Socket and related system calls
C. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
D. File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
E. Domain Name Service (DNS)
F. Peer-to-peer model
III. Transport Layer
A. Priciples of reliable data transfer
B. Connection-oriented transport (TCP)
C. Principles of congestion control
D. TCP congestion control
IV. Network Layer
A. Routing principles
B. Internet Protocol
C. Routing in the Internet
D. Router architectures
E. Multicast routing
V. Local Area Networks
A. Multiple access protocols and LANs
B. Ethernet and token ring
C. Aysnchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
VI. Delay Models
A. Little's Theorem
B. M/M/1 system
C. Generalized state dependent arrival and service system
D. M/G/1 system
E. Polling system
F. Random access system
VII. Multimedia Networking
A. Multimedia applications
B. RTP and RTSP
C. IP Telephony using best effort service
D. Beyond best-effort
E. QoS architecture
Laboratory/Project/Term Paper:
Students work individually or in small groups on a course project. The projects will complement and extend the lecture material. The project may include: (1) implementation of a network protocol, or (2) proposal/design of a new protocol or extension of an existing one followed by its evaluation via computer simulation (and mathematical analysis, whenever possible). Students therefore gain hands-on experience in network protocol design, development, and analysis.
Engineering Design Statement:
The course project includes design, development, and implementation issues in computer network protocols and architectures. Lectures discuss various design issues in computer networks, implementation of the protocols, and tradeoffs between various performance measures such as delay and thruput. The homework and exam problems are based on design issues discussed in lecture.
Illustrative Reading
Textbooks:
J.E. Kurose and K.W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, Addision-Wesley, 2000
D. Bertsekas and R. Gallager, Data Networks, Prentice Hall, 1992
W. Stallings, Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, fifth edition, Prentice Hall, 1997
References:
Selected papers from the recent literature.
Potential Course Overlap
There is no significant overlap with other courses since this course builds the foundation for advance networking courses.
